Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Yeri göğü her eşyayı aradım
Tamamı noksanı özümde buldum
Her mâdeni miheng ile sınadım
Dür ile mercanı özümde buldum
Yedi iklim çâr köşeyi hep gezdim
Ak’ından okudum karasın yazdım
Allemel-esmâ’nın manasın süzdüm
Tefsir’i Kur’an-ı özümde buldum
Elif-Lâm yüzdört kitap anası
Cihana sığmaz Bismillâh’ın manası
Muhammed Mustafa dinin çırası
Ol Fahr-i Cihanı özümde buldum
Yer-gök, Ay-gün seyyar Adem hattince
Cin Vahşi tayyar Adem hattince
Mağrib-Maşrık tayyar adem hattince
Ceyhunu ummanı özümde buldum
Bu haktan husule gelen nebatat
Fâ’il mef’ul eş-câr her ne var icad
Kul Bende-i azâd cümle mahlukât
Hükmeden sultanı özümde buldum
Tecellâ eyledi Nûr-i Zülcelal
Hub-bu Haydar kalbim eyledi seyyar
Aynel yakiyn zuhur eder her mahal
Taktiri yezdanı özümde buldum

In English

1. I searched the earth and the sky and everything that exists; I found the whole and the lack within my own self. I tested every metal on the touchstone; I found pearl and coral within my self.

2. I travelled the seven climes and all four corners of the world; I read from the white of the page and wrote its black. I distilled the meaning of the verse "God taught Adam all the names"; I found the commentary of the Qur'an within my self.

3. Alif and Lam are the mother of the hundred and four books sent from heaven; the meaning of the Basmala cannot be contained by the world. Muhammad Mustafa is the light of the faith; I found that pride of the world within my self.

4. Earth and sky, the course of moon and sun lie within the line of Adam; jinn, wild beasts and flying birds lie within the line of Adam. West and east, all that flies lies within the line of Adam; I found the river Oxus and the ocean within my self.

5. The plants that came into being from this Truth, the doer and the done, the trees, whatever has been created; servant, slave, freedman, all creatures... I found the sovereign who rules them all within my self.

6. The light of God, Lord of majesty, became manifest; love of Haydar (Ali) set my heart on the road. Certainty as sure as sight appears everywhere; I found God's decree within my self.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a koşma of six quatrains in the eleven-syllable metre. Every quatrain ends with a line carrying the redif "... özümde buldum" (I found within my self); in the first quatrain the rhyme "aradım, sınadım" alternates with these refrain lines, while in the following quatrains the first three lines rhyme among themselves. The transmission we have contains no pen-name quatrain. Cafer Özdemir writes that the poet treats man's knowledge of himself and his finding everything within his own self "in two poems", located on pages 54-56 of the divan; from the same place he also quotes a quatrain with the pen name that begins "Ey Fedâî can gıdası zikrullah" and ends "Halk eden Rahman'ı özümde buldum". That quatrain may be the last stanza of this poem, but since it is absent from our text nothing certain can be said.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The idea on which the poem rests is the Sufi understanding summed up in the saying "he who knows himself knows his Lord": everything sought outside is found within man's own self. The poet builds the search on a vast scale. Earth, sky, the seven climes, the four corners, east and west, the Oxus and the ocean are listed, and at the end of each quatrain this breadth is gathered into a single point, the "self". The touchstone image of the first quatrain draws on the stone on which the jeweller tests gold; pearl and coral are symbols of the worth hidden inside man.

The second quatrain refers to verse 31 of the Sura al-Baqara ("wa allama Adam al-asma"); the names God taught Adam are linked to the idea that man carries within himself the knowledge of all beings. The expressions "Alif-Lam" and "a hundred and four books" in the third quatrain show the value given to letters and to the scriptures. The phrase "Adem hattınca", repeated in the fourth quatrain, says that the universe lies within Adam's "line", that is, in the lines of the human face or within its measure. Özdemir, drawing on Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı, recalls that some Hurufi beliefs passed into Alevi-Bektashi circles; these lines, which treat the human face as the mirror of the universe, bear the trace of that understanding. In the last quatrain love of Haydar, that is, devotion to Ali, is named as the path of the mystical search.

Bibliography

Online sources